exploremusic

In 2007, the White Stripes released and album called Icky Thump.  A strange title, to be sure.  Where did it come from? 

By this time, Jack White was married to Karen Elsen, the British model originally from Lancashire.  One day, he heard her use the expression “ecky thump.”  She explained that this was a nonsense phrase some people from Lancashire used when they were surprised by something.  Then she told him about The Goodies.

The Goodies were a Monty Python-like band with a BBC sketch comedy show back in the 70s.  One of their most famous sketches was called “Kung Fu Kapers,” featuring a character who was a master in the long-lost Lancashire martial art known as “Ecky Thump.” 

This sketch might have faded into history if not for the events of the evening of Monday, March 24, 1975.  A 50 year-old bricklayer named Alex Mitchell sat down to watch The Goodies’ episode which featured “Kung Fu Kapers.”  According to his wife—the sole witness to this event—Alex started laughing and couldn’t stop.  He laughed and laughed and laughed.  This went on for 25 continuous minutes—and then he died. Heart failure. He became national news and has gone down in history as being one of the strangest things to ever happen in front of a television.

Intrigued by all this, Jack took “ecky thump” and repurposed it as “icky thump” (he once gave the excuse “copyright reasons”) and turned it into the title of a song and an album.

Here’s the sketch.  Just be careful.  It once killed someone.